


John's Day Off

by vinegardog



Category: Farscape
Genre: F/M, Fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-08
Updated: 2012-06-08
Packaged: 2017-11-07 07:12:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/428333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vinegardog/pseuds/vinegardog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John is trying to relax but...well the usual dren ensues!</p>
            </blockquote>





	John's Day Off

Timeframe: Set about two years after PKWars…somewhere out there in the Uncharted Territories. No spoilers.  
Word count: 2123  
Disclaimer: The characters aren’t mine, but belong to the Henson Company 

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

John’s Day Off 

Peace and quiet. 

Aeryn and Chi have taken Little D down to the commerce planet. We have been orbiting around this rock for the last two days waiting for the streets in the main town to really come to life and for fresh produce to appear on the stalls as it does apparently once a weeken on market day – it reminds me of some of the backwater towns DK and I travelled through after our graduation…quiet little places that all of sudden would burst into life at the weekend during some local festival or for cattle and livestock fairs. The Universe is not so big or diverse after all…if you really look close. 

I am in my underpants, lying back on the bed in our quarters, drowsiness slowly taking over. I am really looking forward to a nap. These moments have been few and far between in the last two cycles. Try and get a mid -afternoon snooze with a toddler running around shadowed by attentive DRDs clucking like mother hens! Pilot has a few of them following D every time he takes a step outside our quarters, he says Moya is really the one concerned for the safety of the smallest member of her crew but Pilot is a bad liar and we know that he’s the one anxious to make sure the D doesn’t crawl into some remote vent never to be seen again or fall into the Trill-bat pit…man, we ARE grateful, but stubbing your toe on a DRD lurking just outside the door in the middle of the night when sleepily heading to centre chamber for a snack or a drink can be a real pain in the ass, especially when it happens almost every second night! My toes are in serious need of medical attention….

Our decision to live on Moya has been overall the right one - not that I am going to admit that out loud - at least not in front of Aeryn….I tried to convince her that settling down on a suitable planet would be better for D…. fresh air, sunshine, maybe a pond to swim in and frolic on warm summer days but my wife is a child of the stars and let’s be honest, the woman can be maddeningly stubborn. She says the same of me but I seriously doubt I am even in the same league. Giving in and staying on Moya was always going to be the end result of the argument...sometimes I wonder why I even try to win arguments with her…I guess I enjoy the make up sessions that follow…hey, shoot me, I am a guy and making up after a good fight is something I look forward to…

I offered to accompany the shopping party to the planet but my wife just looked at me with a raised eyebrow .. I knew what she was thinking - I would just be in her way, delaying her and distracting her – her trips to the commerce planets are planned like military campaigns – land, restock food supplies, acquire other necessary replacement items, retrieve Chiana from one of the refreshments houses – no time or energy wasted. I have married the Sun Tzu of shopping! 

On this occasion she has taken D with her – the little guy is growing big and sturdy and out of his clothes so fast, we can hardly keep up with him, so together with food and a couple of new parts for her Prowler, her shopping list today includes toddler clothes and shoes.

Thinking that I would not see through her, she sweetly suggested I stay behind helping Pilot with some minor but necessary repairs in the neural cluster so that on their return we can starburst away and finally make our way to Hyneria to see Rygel and enjoy a few weekens of planetary R+R .

I agreed not to go to make her happy…hey, I love making her happy, I just can’t help it – I may be a sap but her happiness is mine and in all honesty the allure of a few arns of solitude helped too in the decision to stay behind. Moya is a very large home to us but 24/7 interaction with the rest of the crew can sometimes be a tad overwhelming…

“John, an urgent message from the planet. John, wake up!” Pilot’s face flashes up on the clam shell on the wall across from the bed, a slight tinge of panic in his tone.

“Hey, Pilot, I am here, I was about to catch a few winks but I am awake …”

“Silence,Commander! I am patching Aeryn through to you!”

“John! John are you there, answer me!”

Panic uncharacteristically exudes from every one of Aeryn’s words. 

“Yes, yes, baby, I am here, what’s going on?”

“John, I need you down here NOW, get my Prowler and get down here as fast as possible…”

“Baby, you’re worrying me, you never tell me to fly your Prowler, what’s…”

“Do not interrupt me! D is missing, we cannot find him anywhere, we have been looking for him for the last half an arn, I think he may have been taken…”

“Aeryn, please calm down, I am sure…”

“Don’t tell me to calm down! Our boy is missing, hurry the frell up!”

I am scrambling for my clothes and the urgency in her voice is now making ME panic, I am hopping on one foot trying to pull up my trousers, I miss one of the legs and almost fall flat on my face, all the while trying to slip my feet in my boots…

“Commander, you need to hurry, what is the delay?” Now Pilot is giving me grief!

“I am on my way…please both of you calm down, I am sure D is alright, why would anybody want to take him…”

“Really John, I don’t need your frelling reassurances, I need you to come down here NOW and help us find D – he is so little and…” a sob ends the sentence and my heart stops. I have never heard her so upset! I am running down Moya’s corridors, which seem to go on for miles, towards the hangar bay and the Prowler.

I lose the comms while entering the planet’s atmosphere and in my hurry to get there as fast as I can I almost crash land, skidding the Prowler for quite a distance until it comes to rest sideways beside Moya’s pod.

I am getting out of the cockpit struggling to free myself from the safety harness, my frantic movements making the job far harder than it should be, when, glancing up, I see Aeryn and Chiana, each holding one of D’s hands, walking towards me. D’s chubby face is creased in a dimpled smile and as soon as he sees me, he pulls his little hands from theirs and comes running towards me…

“Daddy, daddy, look what I‘ve got!” He takes something out of his pocket while rocketing towards me.

Relief sweeps through me making me feel dizzy, I get down on my knees and catch his little body in my arms not caring in the very least that something sticky and green held in his pudgy hand just got stuck like glue on to my leather coat.

He is alright, he is safe…I look up and see Chiana’s smile and Aeryn’s frown. For a moment she doesn’t say anything, then :

“Let’s go back to Moya. Chiana, you can take the Prowler back, John you fly the pod….and Chiana…straight back…no frelling around.”

Chiana gives me a look between amusement and pity, bends down to kiss the top of D’s head and flippantly says:

“Good luck, Crichton….”

I follow Aeryn to the pod, I don’t really know why but I feel like a man who did something wrong…she has that effect on me sometimes…I lift D into Aeryn’s arms and climb the steep steps after them. Aeryn is in the co-pilot seat – she is so shaken up she obviously doesn’t feel up to the simple task of flying us back to Moya. I try to make eye contact but she is carefully avoiding looking back at me.

“Fly the pod, John, and make it smooth!”

“Sure, no problem…are you alright honey?”

“I am just fine!” she snaps, all the while hugging D to her chest and staring straight ahead.

I know when to shut up - even though most people think I don’t - so I shut up and concentrate on the task at hand.

We take off and after a couple of hundred microts, her low almost inaudible voice breaks the silence.

“I only took my eyes off him for half a microt and when I turned around he was gone!”

“Aeryn, it’s not your fault…D is at an age when..”

“Do not make excuses for me, I was wrong to let go of his hand, I lost him and I can’t even think about what could have happened to him!”

She is in full self- flagellating mode, so I try to distract her a little.

“So what is this green goo on my coat, where did he get it?”

“A sweets vendor saw him wandering around and took him to his stall, sat him down and gave him some local candy…that’s where Chi found him, happily munching away, not a care in the galaxy!”

A smile is about to surface on my lips at this mental image of D, but I quickly stifle it when she sharply turns her head and looks at me...I look back with what I think might be a noncommittal expression but what I get is:

“You are a fekkik, John!”. Man, nothing escapes her! She knew I was about to smile…

After we land back on Moya, Aeryn stays behind in the hangar bay to check her Prowler’s integrity after Chiana’s landing and I am ordered to take D to Pilot’s den pronto. I lift him up on to the console and four big claws gently and carefully touch him up and down making sure he is alright and all in one piece. When Pilot is finally satisfied that this is the right child and that no harm has been done, he allows himself a sigh of relief and we are allowed to leave.

I am holding D by the hand walking along Moya’s familiar and comforting corridors 

“Little man, you caused quite a stir today… never seen your mother in such a state and if Pilot wore any, he would’ve his knickers in a twist!”

D’s eyes are at half mast, so I take him back to our room, undress him, wash his face and hands of the sticky green mess and tuck him under a blanket in his little bed across from ours. 

When I turn around Aeryn is just standing there, arms crossed hugging her own body looking at us with troubled eyes.

I know better than probe when she is in this mood so I just stand there and look back at her until she finally says:

“Why did he run away from me, John? No Peacekeeper child would ever do that. When I was growing up on the Command Carrier, we were always orderly and did what we were told by our instructors, even at D’s age.”

“Boys will be boys, Aeryn, D was not running away from you, he probably just got distracted and wandered off…”

There is not much more I can say, so I open my arms to her and with relief I see her take a couple of hesitant steps towards me before she finally gives in, steps hard into my embrace and lets me comfort her…

…maybe in a few days, when she is over the shock of the day and her sense of humour is back, I should tell her about the five, six or seven times when my mother lost me in supermarkets, amusement parks and playgrounds …today, though, I don’t think she would consider my half of D’s genetic predisposition to wander off amusing in the least!

Later, when the hush of the night cycle has enveloped Moya, I am lying in bed with Aeryn asleep in my arms, contentedly listening to her regular breathing and D’s soft sweet mewling sounds, heralds of his dreaming, when a slight buzzing sound attracts my attention. 

I turn my head towards the door and all I can see is an army of bright little eyes on stalks, all perfectly aligned outside our quarters. There are three or four times more in number than normal…my toes curl under the blanket….it will take a while before things get back to normal but, hey, this is my life now and I love it!

The end.


End file.
